Place of Birth

Creators

Contents

History

Early Life

Born into Metropolis high society.[1] Martha's father had hoped that she would become a lawyer, like him, and one day take over his firm.[2] However, Martha's life would forever change in college. Attending Metropolis University, she met and fell in love with smallville farmer and fellow Met U student Jonathan Kent, whom she later married.[3]

It's unknown if Martha finished her law degree. However, prior to adopting her son, she had a job in business.[4]

Suffering from a fertility problem, Martha was unable to have children.[5] She desperately wished for one. Her wish would unexpectedly come true, in October 1989, when the town of Smallville was hit by the largest meteor shower in history. After the meteor shower, Martha and her husband came across a young boy, who had arrived in the meteor shower.[6] They took the boy home with them, with Martha giving the boy her family name "Clark", as a first name. Deciding to keep him, they needed documents that showed him having been adopted, so they called in a favor from Lionel Luthor.[7]

Season One

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Season Two

As Clark had grown older, Martha had begun thinking about going back to work. An opportinuity presented itself, when Lionel offered her a job as his administrative assistant, much to Jonathan's disapproval, but she ended up taking the job.[4] However, she later resigned from this position.[8]

Getting a job wasn't the only change in Martha's life. Having been exposed to energy from Clark's spaceship, her fertility problem had been corrected and she became pregnant.[5] However, tragedy struck, when Clark blew up the ship and Martha was caught in the shockwave. As a result, Martha miscarried, while Clark ran off to Metropolis for most of the summer.[9][10]

Season Three

Thanks to Jonathan making a deal with Jor-El, they got Clark back.[11] However, Martha didn't learn the details of said deal, until months later: that Jonathan had promised to return Clark to Jor-El. This enraged Martha. In the end, Martha was unable to do anything, while Clark was sucked into a wall in the Kawatche Caves and Jonathan was placed in a coma.[12]

Season Four

Martha spent all her time by Jonathan's bedside, until she was unexpectedly reunited with Clark, who had been taken to the Smallville Medical Center by Lois Lane. Clark turned out to have been programmed by Jor-El, but Martha was able to undo the programming thanks to black Kryptonite.[13]

The Kent family returned to normal life, but Martha felt a desire to have her own job once more and managed to convince Lex Luthor to let her manage the Talon.[14]

On the day of Clark's high school graduation, Martha and the other people in town learned that another meteor shower was going to hit Smallville. But, when Martha and Jonathan were going to leave town, they were confronted and taken hostage by Jason Teague, who demanded answers about Clark. Teague was killed during the meteor shower, while Martha was injured and had to be taken to the Medical Center but made a full recovery.[15][16]

Season Five

Martha's life would once more take an unexpected turn, after Jonathan ran for state senate. However, mere hours after being elected, Jonathan suffered a fatal heart attack.[17] Martha was left a widow and with a difficult choice to make: whether she would accept Jonathan's seat in his place. In the end, she decided to accept the seat.[18] She also hired Lois Lane as her chief of staff.[19]

Season Six

Martha made the leap from state senator to United States senator, after her predecessor Edward Burke was murdered and Martha was recommended as his replacement.[20] Due to her new position, she departed Smallville and moved to Washington, D.C..[21]

Season Nine

When Lionel died, he left Martha his entire Kryptonian library. Her move to Washington had continued to change her life. Discovering a secret government organization called "Checkmate", which could pose a danger to her son, she set herself up as the "Red Queen", to protect Clark.[1]

Martha had also begun to move on from the death of Jonathan and began to date Perry White. Together, they visited the Kent Farm. However, Martha found the return difficult emotionally and admitting that she didn't like being there, as it reminded her of her late husband.[1]

However, her visit hadn't entirely been to see Clark. As the Red Queen, Martha acquired the Book of Rao, a device able to send Kryptonians to another planet. Revealing herself as the Red Queen, she gave the Book of Rao to Clark, to handle an upcoming invasion by Kryptonian clones.[1] Afterwards, she and Perry departed the farm, but she left him with one more gift: a red and blue suit.[22]

Season Ten

As costumed vigilantes were growing in numbers, there were also growing anti-vigilante views among the American people. This lead to the passing of the Vigilante Registration Act (VRA).[23] However, Martha was able to rally support for the act to be overturned.[24]

Martha also decided to give Clark and Lois the deed to the Kent Farm.[25] However, she wasn't crazy about them deciding to sell the farm, but she ultimately accepted their choice. And attended their wedding.[26]

Season Eleven

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The role of Martha Kent was portrayed by Annette O'Toole. Smallville executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar cast Annette O'Toole in contrast to the traditional vision of the character. Historically, "Ma Kent" is usually portrayed as an elderly woman with a white beehive hairdo wearing an apron. Gough and Millar wanted the Kents to be younger so that they could more readily relate to the perils of raising a teenage boy.